Recently I sat next to a fellow coin collector as we traveled by plane to a national show. The long flight gave us time to talk about our collections, numismatic books and publishing, the U.S. Mint, and other hobby topics.

I was surprised by certain world weariness in the conversation with this very knowledgeable collector. He had reached an advanced point where his collections of U.S. coins included many of the finest known, the highest graded, the most expensive, the rarest. So why the weariness? Lack of intellectual curiosity was not the problem, and neither was drive; he was simply out of “holes” to fill in his collection. He’d reached all his goals, conquered all his challenges, and—to put it bluntly—he was getting bored.

Once you have all the dates and mintmarks in a coin series, how do you keep up your interest? Most collectors in that position will start the process of upgrading— systematically gathering higher grade examples of each coin, and “deaccessioning” (to use a museum archivist’s word) the lower-grade pieces, until everything has been raised to Mint State. Some collectors will expand their collection to include die varieties, such as those explored in the Cherrypickers’ Guide, or misstrike and error coins, like the ones seen in appendix A of the Guide Book of United States Coins. Others will try to find another coin series that inspires their imagination enough to start a new collection.

If you’ve reached a plateau with date-and mintmark collecting and you’re looking for a fun new approach to the hobby, Whitman Publishing presents The Milestone Coins Challenge.

Kenneth Bressett (who most collectors know as the longtime editor of the Red Book, and award-winning author of numerous hobby books and articles) has written a unique book titled Milestone Coins: A Pageant of the World’s Most Significant and Popular Money. It’s an engaging volume, covering more than 100 coins, tokens, and other metal objects (like the “knife money” and silver “shoes” of China) that people have used as currency. Bressett tells the stories of these remarkable collectibles, going back to ancient Ionia and following them across centuries and continents to modern-day America.

“Herein are my observations on what I view as some of the hobby’s most popular coins,” writes Bressett in the preface. “They have proven to be favorites as long as they have been around. Among them, you are sure to find some of the pieces that you are particularly fond of as your personal top picks. Others may be new to you. I invite you to explore them all, and to broaden your total enjoyment of numismatics by expanding your awareness.”

The Milestone Coins Challenge is this: to take Ken Bressett up on his invitation, to build a collection of each of the 110 coins whose stories are told in this entertaining book.

Every coin in Milestone Coins is collectible— although some are very challenging to find in the marketplace, and will require a lot of hunting! Chances are you already own some of these milestone pieces. Chapter 10, “Money in America,” includes such popular coins as the Indian Head cent, the Morgan silver dollar, and commemorative half dollars. Chapter 9 (“Emerging Concepts in Coinage and Money”) includes British Conder tokens and the Maria Theresa thaler of Austria.

The pieces in Milestone Coins are presented with enough flexibility to let you build a unique collection. Ten friends could each take The Milestone Coins Challenge, and they would build ten very different collections. Some of the coins are specific— like the 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent—but many are in groups broad enough to allow creativity in dates and types. Civil War tokens and Conder tokens, for example, provide thousands of different varieties to choose from!

Split the list up among your coin club’s membership, and take the Challenge as a group. Or challenge a friend and see who can build their collection the fastest, or acquire the best examples (perhaps within a set budget, perhaps no-holds-barred).

By the time you’re done (and this contest will take some time, challenging your savvy as a collector), you will have a display-worthy collection of 110 of the most significant and popular coins in world history—“the basic cornerstone pieces that ‘everyone’ eventually wants to own,” as Bressett calls them; the “classics that seem to never go out of style.”

Beyond that, though, you’ll have assembled a world of knowledge on some of the most intriguing coins ever made. Display them at a convention, show them off at your coin club, take them to a local school and teach the students about what you’ve learned along the way.

100-plus fascinating stories, 100-plus pieces of money and a fun new way to approach the hobby await you.

To take The Milestone Coins Challenge, borrow or buy a copy of Milestone Coins, and print a copy of the PDF checklist from the Whitman website to keep track of your collection.

Top left: Nearly bankrupted by war n the early 1600s, and unable to muster enough silver for coins, Sweden was forced to rely on its copper mines to provide for a unique new form of coinage. The kingdom's large "plate money" weighed up to 45 pounds.